


Emotions

by psigay (roseyjakes)



Series: if i could just change places [1]
Category: Mother 3
Genre: Alternate Universe - Character Swap, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-24 07:04:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12007575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseyjakes/pseuds/psigay
Summary: Claus felt so much and so hard, but for Lucas? There was just nothing.(One shot from my Lucas-Claus swap AU.)





	Emotions

To say Claus was miffed would be an understatement. He was livid.

The Absolutely Safe Capsule had sealed shut with a soft hiss and a lack in finality, and for a moment Claus, Kumatora, Duster, and Boney had stared in shock, chests rising and falling with their labored breathing. Porky’s face stared back at them, a mocking grin that almost comically contorted his veiny white and wrinkled skin. Then he stuck his tongue out at them in the most childish, immature gesture ever and something inside Claus snapped.

He couldn’t remember the noise he had made, some wordless sound of rage that cracked at the end, but he could remember hitting the capsule over and over and over and over while Porky’s face jeered at him, Boney’s echoing barks in the cavern, and Kumatora yelling something before she and Duster caught him under the arms and pulled him back. His arms pinwheeled as he tried to get out and yelled profanities he shouldn’t have even known and that dad would’ve been so mad over if he’d heard, and when that failed drew together as much psychic power as he could muster and screamed out as he hit the capsule with the most powerful PSI Love he could before anyone could try and stop him.

The attack merely glanced off.

Claus had collapsed backwards against Kumatora and Duster. They let go of his arms and just held him up, and his hands shook as he covered his face with them; he didn’t want to see Porky or the capsule anymore, and he didn’t want that monster to see the hot, angry tears running down his face. Kuma and Duster let him be, just for a second.

The weird short doctor guy with the balding head and big glasses who had been working for Porky had shaken Claus back to reality. He had to pull the last needle and stop reality from being destroyed and, more importantly, save Lucas (or maybe that was only more important to him). He rubbed at his eyes while the scientist person explained what Porky had done, and he hadn’t even thought about it when he said that it was okay. Porky absolutely deserved every second of his self imposed eternity alone. He’d destroyed everything, everyone’s happiness and Claus’ family for nothing but because he was bored, and now he got to suffer absolute boredom for eternity. He deserved it for everything he’d done to Claus’ family, and especially his brother. His gut twisted just thinking about Porky calling Lucas a thing and an it and it pulled a feeling out of him he thought he would never have again, not after his mom’s passing and what he’d done, something he couldn’t describe right because it was so tangled and furious. He’d wanted to tear Porky apart.

He hadn’t said it out loud, but the doctor’s perturbed expression like he knew and was judging Claus stuck in his head even as he trudged past the capsule and onwards to the final needle. He was livid, but there was guilt too like a weight around his neck; he had never been good at being calm or being kind. Not like Lucas. He felt too much and didn’t think anything through enough and he got people hurt. He could remember back home, all the judging eyes on him and everyone saying “if only he had been more like Lucas, maybe he’d still be with us, bless his little heart.” He’d been doing so well too, he’d thought. He was trying to learn, he had realized people needed compassion and for you to be forgiving, he had been working on finally being strong in the right way, but then the monster came up, snapping hungry and full of rage. Even with all the sugar coating in the world he’d always have an Ultimate Chimera for a heart under it. He hated it.

For now he had to push it down though, pack it tightly into a corner of himself where the light wouldn’t reach; his heart had to be kind, had to be at least good, or, or–

–he could destroy everything.

It heard the footsteps long before they came into sight. It could filter out the howling of the wind through these caverns and hear each individual: number of legs, stride, and difference in footwear. They were more then likely the ones it had faced earlier who had beaten it. It didn’t matter to it, the loss was attributable to a lack of drive to do harm and a miscalculation of the force needed to merely subdue.

Its master was in its head now, sending confirmation that the opposition was on its way. He sounded– upset? The Commander did not know how to parse emotions well. After he went silent, the feeling of someone else being there didn’t go away, though. This meant that its master would be watching the fight through its eyes, a familiar (though never not uncomfortable) feeling that it had also dealt with during its last fight and often just when it was doing its tasks. It didn’t really bother it. Nothing did.

It should not have been able to be in a daze, but that was all that could explain it not doing anything except standing in front of the needle until a voice called out behind it.

“Lucas!”

It turned around, as much a purposeful action as it felt like it had been tugged, inexplicably, by the sound, or the person, or the name maybe, and met eyes with Claus.

Claus’ breath caught in his throat again, same as when he’d first seen his brother again. He looked all wrong in those grown up clothes: a bright red silk vest with dull gold buttons, slacks tucked into boots, and a silk button up with lace on the collar, clothes richer than either of them had ever seen in their life before the pig men had come, and that they certainly had never worn. Worse were the visible reminders of how he’d been hurt by the Drago. There was a blue light right next to the tube running from the cannon that had replaced the arm that had been torn off and the light reflected off the sleek black metal it was made of, and sets of claw gashes ran across his face, the biggest cutting under the masked man’s mask right through where his eye would be. Lucas’ other, visible eye was empty, devoid of anything, and Claus wanted to scream.

He wanted Lucas to come back, he wanted to see the warmth that had always been in that blue that was the same as his but also so different. But Claus didn’t know what to do. Porky had called Lucas a robot, and his blank eyes did nothing to persuade against that notion.

None of them moved. Boney whimpered next to him, mirroring Claus’ own uncertainty and the sinking feeling in his gut, and Duster’s eyes were sad and just as uncertain. Kumatora, who didn’t know Lucas and was still hurting from what pulling all these needles meant for the people who raised her, had a hard set to her eye.

 _Hit them with the lightning, and shoot to kill!_  The Commander blinked. It had been stalling, inexplicably, but the order set it back in motion, the strange heavy feeling dispersing back into normal, comfortable nothing. It stood up straight, gears turning, put it’s feet into the fight start position, pulled the blade out, and struck.

A bolt streaked from above in the darkness of the cave and hit with a flash that illuminated even the darkest corners of the cavernous space before returning to darkness, over in seconds but striking Kumatora, Duster, and Boney down and reflecting back at the Commander before it had time to even think about the unhappy feeling of seeing the dog get hit. It was too busy going into a defensive stance; this time it raised its light sword and rubber gloved arms to block it, the lightning glancing off harmlessly, then walked slowly, unfeeling, to engage Claus.

Its master was making triumphant sounds as it cut into Claus before he could dodge out of the way. He jeered when Claus tried Lifeup on all of his group and it immediately shot them down again, howled with laughter and mocked when Claus kept Shielding instead of attacking in kind, and said mean things about it’s opponent that annoyed it more then it should, but despite these distractions it was clear that this fight would not last long. Regularly, Claus was physically much stronger than it, if with weaker PSI, but with the way he wasn’t returning damage his weaker PSI ability was putting him at too much of a disadvantage.

_Lucas._

He– It suddenly backed away from Claus and glanced frantically around looking for the source of the voice, because it couldn’t have been in his head. The only one who could talk to it that way was Porky– his- it’s master. The one who had it built. But its head had been oddly (blessedly) quiet since that voice–

With a painful burst of mental static its Master was back, and he yelled at it to attack now, his voice tinged with anxiety from the sudden lack of contact. Why he would worry a robot wouldn’t continue to follow orders was beyond it– or it would have been if not for what it had just experienced, something it shouldn’t have. It shook its head and looked back towards Claus, and Claus had an identical expression of shock, glancing around.  _Distracted_ , it thought, and as if he had heard the thought Claus looked back at it, and the chance was gone, but it still attacked, shooting off a PSI attack that it’s opponent barely healed the damage from in time.

It followed orders. It did not feel an ache its chest, did not feel longing or sadness when it’s opponent hurt, because that was beyond a robot to do.

_You’re not Porky’s robot, Lucas. You’re our son!_

It could not feel.


End file.
